Wednesday, 23 February 2011

A Sorceror's Tale

A few weeks ago I posted the second scenario in the chaos campaign - the Sorceror Apprentices. My sorceror, Bl'nd the Reckless, faced an Empire army. He rolled two spells from the Tzeentch deck, Baleful Transmogrification and Infernal Gateway. The battle took place in a magic infused landscape, and it did play a big part in the game.

The first major event was the Empire wizard casting Metal spells at my knight, obliterating them in turn one! Not the best start in a 1600 point game. With my forces also coming under pressure from Empire handguns and artillery, it was a tough first half. Bl'nd the Reckless lived up to his name, choosing to roll 6 dice at every opportunity. He managed to cast Infernal Gateway a number of times, wiping out several Greatswords, halberdiers and virtually a whole unit of handgunners. His kill tally mounted up rapidly to over 30. Meanwhile, the bulk of the chaos army made it into combat, helped by screens of chaos hounds.

With most of the handgunners, the cannons and the wizard destroyed, towards the end of the game it was a simple task for the chaos forces to mop up the Empire stragglers. Greatswords and then halberdiers fell under the onslaught. In the last turn of the game, the remaining unit of spearmen was surrounded by chaos units. But Bl'nd proved too reckless in his quest to prove himself to the Chaos gods. He once again threw 6 dice and up rolled 3 sixes. The miscast saw him sucked into the Realm of Chaos. I could easily have played safe, but got carried away by the aims of the scenario.

So in subsequent games I will be severely limited in my magic capability, just a level 1 sorceror lending me aid. However, this is not disastrous, as my opponent's sorceror failed to impress the gods in his game against a Beastmen army. He foolishly got embroiled in a combat, only narrowly avoiding death at the hands of a Wargor, and barely escaped from a unit of rampaging minoaturs. Surrounded and desperate, he miscast and died a pathetic death, so the campaign continues with us both in a similar position. As an aside, it was my first time using a beastmen army and I really enjoyed it, so expect more beastly updates later in the year!

Cheers guys, the games are far more exciting when fought this way. The next scenario will be a test to see if the army standard bearer deserves to carry a magic banner. The aim is to give us both some direction in what we collect and paint, and that's exactly what it has done. As the campaign progresses and the cast develops, the games will get bigger and involve more characters.